every person has a story

February 17, 2010

I saw this on a friend's Facebook and I really liked it as a reflection for Lent. So I am posting it here as a reflection:

Andrew

is remembering that Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend, even knowing what He knew about resurrections, both immediate and eschatological. I have a dirty forehead today, and it helps me remember that God is not content with the dust being our only future. I'm thankful that He is relentless in His zeal to mend, through Christ, a deathly world.

February 16, 2010

My email to the various teams working on distributions earned me an invite to speak at the U.N. Agricultural Cluster meeting this afternoon. It may sound like a big deal, and I guess it could be, but it really seems like a tiny step. Pray that I am well-received and that I speak with God’s wisdom.

We just received the Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT), a team comprised of members of multiple NGOs working on the behalf of orphans worldwide. I had a bit of time to brief with them tonight and from what I hear, they are a team of 11 people who are here representing various organizations under one banner to do one thing: to help Haiti’s churches help Haiti’s children. I like that vision.

The instant response in many hearts to the current orphan crisis in Haiti brought about by the earthquake is to come in, grab a few children and take them “home” with you. They are so cute, how could you not do so. They NEED you. Don’t they?

Well, yes they do need you right now, but please don’t assume that you “heroes from the west” know best. (Jars of Clay’s challenges their own views and motives for their “Blood:Water Mission” in their song “Light Gives Heat“. Every missionary NEEDS to hear this song). Many of you know that a group of 10 American Heroes got caught up in this mess as they tried to “save” 33 Haitian children from this tragedy. Now they are in cuffs awaiting trial for child trafficking.

Even worse, their lawyer called it quits, citing the group’s leader as the blame for all of their problems. And today we hear that another former law advisor of theirs is facing his own round of charges for human trafficking in El Salvador and in the United States. He was even caught with multiple identities and passports. Let’s not forget the reports that several of the children were crying saying in creole “I’m not an orphan, I want my mother!”

It seems that the grave has already been dug. If you ask my personal opinion, justice will only be served if these missionaries are prosecuted according to Haitian Law. That also means that they should not get bail until the trial is through. It’s the law, and favoritism should be forbidden. Fairness has to enter into Haiti’s justice system sometime… Now is a good time.

Are they traffickers? Maybe. Were they misguided? Surely. This is clear enough when you look at their circle of friends and defenders in this mess. It is also bothersome to me that they would have children crying in a language that they don’t understand and they didn’t have a way to find out the problem. Where were the translators? What about checking into the credibility of your legal advisers?

I don’t know the whole case, and since media likes to sensationalize negativity, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and only say that they were seriously misguided in these areas (see my note at the end). To me, the most troublesome and most misguided mentality that seems apparent is thinking that you can only save Haiti’s children if you “save them from Haiti.” They were prepared to do it at all costs. Now they find themselves unable to pay.

Haiti has a serious “brain drain” problem. Haiti’s most talented citizens leave, looking for opportunities all around the world. I won’t go into it now, but Haitians are very successful everywhere in the world, except for in Haiti. (If you start to ask the stars to identify their nation of origin you would be shocked). Children are Haiti’s only hope for a better future. We will see a new Haiti 20 years after all children receive education, good health care, and fair opportunities. If you save them all FROM Haiti, you may be hurting Haiti.

Of course, I believe that there is a place for adoption. It is and will always be an important part of the process… But it is not the default. I want to propose to you what I proposed to the Haitian Orphan Relief Team:

If you save Haiti’s children IN Haiti… You can save Haiti.

It’s a very simple concept, but it can make the world of a difference for our nation. If you are going to invest into Haiti’s orphans, please invest into a vision like this.

Fondation Gerald Bataille Ministries has a vision for Haiti’s children… and widows. James 1:27 shows us that “Pure and faultless religion” is to care for the orphan AND the widow. We plan to help both by putting them together as FAMILIES not in massive centers. There is nothing pretty about a house of 100 children. It gets much better than that, but sorry… the full vision is for a later date. Sorry to hold you in suspense… again . Big plans require time and careful thinking, and careful management.

NOTE: I understand that there will be many views concerning the group of missionaries. I am sure that even their supporters will read this blog. We Christians have a call to be the hand of Christ to the world… but Jesus Christ was the wisest man to ever walk the face of the earth. Check into the details yourself. No matter what their motive was, it seems clear to me that wisdom will stand as a judge against them in the end.

February 12, 2010

2 - "Your boyfriend can let you downYour girlfriend can let you downThe men of this world can let you down but Jesus never fails" (this one cracks me up!)

also, the very small children never wear underwear or diapers (these are practically unheard of) and rarely wear pants, skirts, or really any type of clothing below the waist. twice now when i've held 2 of them on my lap, they've pooped on me, or just wiped themselves on me from previous poops. hahaha! i love the mission field...

The following is an email that I sent to various leaders in the Haitian aid effort. Please read it and forward its message to anyone who holds power in this aid effort. Some of you have more “powerful” friends than I. Spread the word & bombard the following organizations with emails, calls, and visits:

In a previous email Mr. Kaiser made mention of a food distribution strategy that concerns me, our foundation, and many “thinkers” among the Haitian people. If I am not mistaken, the strategy of the WFP is not to give each family a sack of rice to live off of for a month. It is to “blanket” the market with donated rice in order to lower its market price on the streets. Please consider the following concern:

After the rain season will come Haiti’s largest rice crop from the Artibonite Valley. In the last few decades, Haitian rice has already struggled against foreign rice in the local markets. Locals would normally choose Haitian rice for its quality and flavor, but it has no competition against the prices of foreign brands. A word of caution: if careful measures are not taken in this aid effort HAITI’S FOOD INDUSTRY WILL NOT SURVIVE for another year. This disaster would be greater than the first, raising a need for another wave of food aid.

We have seen this happen before (See: http://www1.american.edu/TED/haitirice.htm ). Haiti used to be able to feed itself, but now has a net import of ALL of its staple foods. Farmers, tired of running deficits, are quitting to come to Port-au-prince to beg for jobs. Men & women of the WFP/PAM, the UN, and others, Please take care that your policies DO NOT BUILD DEPENDENCE on foreign aid.

CONSIDER THIS PROPOSED SOLUTION:

I propose that the WFP, in partnership with other NGOs, buy out the ENTIRE CROP of Haitian rice from the coming season to be given in the next round of aid. To balance the cost of such a move, sell any surplus in foreign markets and label & market it as another Haitian Aid effort. This will not only save Haiti’s agriculture industry, but it will provide a considerable boost to the Haitian economy so that the Haitian people can PULL THEMSELVES out of this disaster. Anything less will be a mistake. Anything less will cause another disaster.

We would be glad to discuss this policy with anyone who has the desire. Please forward this message to the proper authorities. Thank you for serving our great nation.

February 09, 2010

This week I traveled to a village called Panyana with a couple named John and Poppy Spens, fellow missionaries in Yei with the Anglican church from the UK…whom I love. They are a whacky, hilarious couple who have a beautiful marriage and relationship. (Interjection: we have a Bible study every Sunday at their house for all the missionaries in the area. There are quite a few, about 20, I was surprised. I thought I’d be the only one, along with the other Iris folk, but there’s a great community here. My absolute favorite part about it is that there are several denominations represented, but I have no clue how many is because no one talks about it. No one cares. All that matters is that we all love Jesus. Right now we are going through the book of Ephesians verse by verse. This past Sunday, I led the discussion of Eph. 2:1-10, it was so great. It’s a true picture of the Body of Christ being one. The mission field and the difficulty of the living and working here, the warfare, truly brings the church together. I guess you stop caring about theological and doctrinal differences and just support and love one another). The drive was 2 hours along very bumpy, dusty roads, but fun :). We were there to help with a week-long youth conference. We walked in to joyous African worship, lots of dancing and shouting. That day we hiked up to the mountain there. The view was beautiful and it started to rain!! This is super rare at this time in Sudan, so it is a huge blessing, even though I was freezing (which is better than being sweating hot to the point of wanting to pass out). We worshiped in the rain, under a really flimsy tarp, but Jesus loved it! The next day Poppy and I spoke to the girls (about 40 of them) about, get this….fashion!!! Hahaha! As if I am any authority on this topic…some of you know how I dressed in college  Poppy is the same way, she thought it was hilarious. We ended up speaking about modesty in dress and not causing our brothers to stumble, and prayed for some of the girls at the end.

John spoke to the men about the marriage relationship and how to treat wives/women. This topic of men and women, right Biblical relationship, marriage, has come up pretty much every day this week. My eyes have been opened anew to the oppression and terrible treatment of women here. Some of the questions the youth asked were very difficult and point to how drastically different this culture is, but how we must maintain the Biblical standard even if it confronts the whole of society. One was “What if a husband and wife can’t have children? Can the man go and seek another wife?” Because infertility is always the woman’s fault. The answer was no, of course, but this is challenging here because children are a valuable possession (not that they are always treated well, but they are a measurement of one’s success). Another question was “I am a Christian now and have repented, but I have 2 wives from pre-Christian days. What do I do?” We didn’t know the answer to this one, because if he chooses one the other will be out on the street, and how can he choose one? Beating of wives was also addressed, a very common practice here. One the drive back, I noticed mostly women on the roads carrying various loads on their heads – water, straw, bananas. Now I recently tried to place a standard water jug on my head. I swear I thought it was gonna crush my skull. The thing must have weighed 50 lbs. Beira, who was helping me, was laughing and said “African women are stronger than men.” I witnessed the truth of this statement on the drive back, as these women carried these heavy loads. John and Poppy told me they walk back and forth between watering holes and markets for miles every day – to wash clothes, fetch water, sell/buy wares. Essentially, the women do everything – cooking, cleaning, raising children. Often times the men are jobless, so they just sit around because all this is “women’s work”. On top of that, like I said, they are often beaten. Then I got back to the compound and one of the girls told me about an altercation she had with one of the guys about this topic. He was saying men are better than women, because Eve was the reason for sin and Adam was created first. I don’t know if he had been joking or not. He’s a wonderful guy who loves Jesus a lot, but the fact that he could think like this again points to how deep-rooted this mindset is in this culture that it permeates even true God-loving people. She had been upset and I was like, “That’s it, we’re doing a Bible study on this!” Then I’m sitting at breakfast with some of the male staff and we’re talking about malaria (rampant here, everyone’s had it multiple times). The female mosquito carries malaria, and a comment is made “See, women cause trouble!” And they went into how women in positions of authority are so much harsher than men in the same positions. We mostly laughed about it and took it lightly, but I made sure to express the fact that anyone without Jesus is not going to act righteously (I mean look at the presidents of Sudan and the war that had raged for decades) and both men and women have weaknesses and strengths. Yesterday night we did the Bible study with the older kids (I say kids, but some of them are my age), and it was great, I think the best Bible study thus far. It went for about 2 hours, there were many questions and all were attentive. I taught how men and women were equal, how both were at fault in the Fall, and the Biblical marriage relationship/roles of husband and wife (Eph 5). I spoke about the importance of choosing wisely whom you marry, with a lot of prayer and observation of the person’s character, not hastily. We talked very openly and candidly, which was refreshing. The kids want to do another Bible study on this topic, wanting to learn what it means for a man to lead his family, what he must do, etc. I think there was breakthrough, and I am very confident that they will be wonderful husbands and wives.

In light of these issues of female oppression here, I’m starting to get a real heart for the women here, especially our girls. I can see that because of the culture’s treatment of and perception of women as slaves and property, even those who know Jesus are under the yoke of this mindset. They are not confident like the boys are. It is mostly the boys who talk in Bible study, and it’s like pulling teeth trying to get the girls to talk. When I speak to them, a lot of them won’t look me in the eyes. They carry a lot of shame and insecurity. I want to tackle this head on and speak over them their beauty, identity, and purpose. I’m gonna be doing a Bible study with the girls separately and hitting on these things.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and praying for me, it means a lot to me :)

February 05, 2010

I thank you all for your support in the earthquake relief thus far. Many of you have asked what you can send to us and how. The nation's infrastructure is not prepared to receive small, individual packages, but aid can be sent to the shipping port. It will be more cost & time effective for everything to come down in one shipping container. If you have been collecting supplies or if you have something that you would like to donate, please send it to "HELP International" in Colorado. They are preparing a container for us. Mark your donations with "FGBM - Haiti" to get the relief to us directly. If you are already preparing a container, that is another story. Contact me directly if that is the case.

HELP International629 14th SWLoveland,Co. 80534

We are currently working out some distribution plans, hopefully with the full collaboration with mayors of two communes in addition to our own church and community. (Don't worry, these are good mayors. One preaches at our church from time to time... He's also the one that is sleeping out in the open like everyone else because he can't bear to say no to every needy family that asks for a tent. They don't know that he keeps giving up his own). We are putting some smart distribution systems in place, and a plan for helping people recover stronger not just survive for a few more months. The systems are almost in place, but the aid that we will deliver is not yet here. We are waiting on you.

Temporary Shelter (tents) - We are trying to work with the mayors to house, organize (register--for future relief/rebuilding purposes), and aid thousands of displaced families. Rain season will begin soon and many are sleeping under sheets at the moment. Put it together and you have a lot of health problems... This will bring new medical needs. More news on that soon.

Large Plastic Garden Pots/Trays - The thin kind that can be stacked high. We don't plan to give food forever... nor should we. We hope that In a matter of months the areas that we help will be building up their ability to be self-sufficient. Why just give beans, when you can help them put them in the ground too? If you can help us to get a large shipment of these free or cheap, contact JEAN KAYE-WILSON directly (jeankaye@helpint.org or office - 800-955-9444; mobile 720-280-3838).

Money - We need money for logistical things as well as food items for the relief effort, but we are also building a fund for the reconstruction process. If you want to give, please click on the following link: http://www.sgionline.info/index.php?id=51

Thank you again for your concerns, your words of encouragement, and for all of your help.

February 02, 2010

Today makes 2 weeks in Sudan. I am learning to rest in God. As I said in my previous post, Michele is currently traveling in the States, therefore I do not have a concrete job here yet. So it's been a lot of nothing to do. This is hard for someone like me, who lives for impact and wants to be spent in this life for the sake of souls and the increase of the Kingdom. My motto is “I will rest in heaven.” God is confronting this mindset. I am not a worker but a lover. My primary identity is not that of missionary or minister, but daughter of God. So I know God is in this. He wants me to just relax, enjoy getting to know the children and spending time with them, even though I often feel like nothing is being accomplished through me doing this. I am bombarded with “But there are so many who need Jesus, so many sick and dying, bound....” Here's that Messiah complex rearing its head. I have to shut these thoughts down and understand that I am truly in His will, exactly where I need to be, and He will make a way for all things.

I went to the hospital the other day with one of the older Iris boys, Edward. It was about a 30 minute walk, but the most grueling 30 minutes ever. The heat here is unbelievable. During the hottest part of the day, in the sun, it's about 105 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. Even though these are the winter months, they are the hottest because it's the dry season. (When the rains come during the summer months, it cools down). We got there and went to the sick children's ward. The hospital was pretty dilapidated and unsanitary – there was a stray cat lying in the entrance to the kids' ward – but not as bad as I expected. Here in Africa, they let you just walk in, pray, preach, sing...whatever. There aren't the strict rules about visitation rights and privacy we have in the States. So we walk over to the moms sitting with their sick kids and ask to pray for them. There's a general aura of despair in the room, you can see it on the women's faces. Most of the kids have fevers, diarrhea, various symptoms the causes of which are unknown. We would pray for the children and I would ask the moms if they knew Jesus. Most said yes, although some of them may not truly be saved (Christianity is a culture here in southern Sudan where “everyone is saved”). We would pray for the moms as well. Then we walked back, and I pretty much collapsed when I got back to the compound. I have to say the whole thing was just plain hard. Maybe some of those kids will be healed in the next few days, but I did not see any immediate changes when we prayed. I've prayed for lots of sick people and have seen very few actually get healed. I believe God's will is to heal and He wants to use us to do it. Jesus said “Heal the sick,” not “Pray for the sick.” I'm still waiting for this to be true in my life; I'm not sure why God delays or why He doesn't heal everyone we pray for, so I'm a bit discouraged, but I'm not going to stop praying for the sick. Edward leads the small Iris children in a daily devotional, where he has them memorize Scripture. Even the little 3-year olds know John 3:16, 14:6, 3:3, Jeremiah 29:11, and several others by heart. I'm gonna record one of the little girls reciting one of these days, it's the sweetest, most precious thing. Anyways, the kids keep asking him “When are we going to go to the hospital to pray for the sick?” They're getting it – they know who Jesus is and they know who they are in Him. This is totally my heart – to equip and release children in signs and wonders. So I'm gonna work on some schedule/transportation plan to take teams of these kids to the hospital regularly.

A few days ago, Holy Spirit broke out in our kitchen while some of the girls were cooking. They all stopped cooking and started dancing, singing, praising God, for a solid 1.5 hours. Super way delayed, but it was so much fun. Everyone was dancing full force, clothes drenched in sweat by the end of it. It was just the spontaneous rejoicing in Jesus, laughter...so beautiful.

I've got 2 more stories to share. Edward (18) my hospital accomplice, spent several years in a refugee camp during the war. His parents both died from sickness. After the war, he went to live with a step-uncle in Yei who was an alcoholic and drank all the money away. He survived on coconut for one year. He was miserable, hopeless, living in sin, having grown up in a “Christian” family..and then Iris Min took him in and he met Jesus, for real. He was telling me how much suffering he has been through in his life, and that God spoke to him on Friday “The time of suffering is over” and he rejoiced. This kid carried such peace and humility, and his smile is contagious.

There's Tito, an older man and the compound manager. He spent 20 years in a refugee camp. He said there was no work, no school, just plain nothing to do...for 20 years.

Being here is producing a true cry in me of “Come Lord Jesus, return to us.” This world is empty and poor, and Jesus is changing lives today for sure, but there will not be full restoration and an end to all pain until He comes back to us. I long for no more tears, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain. Until that day, I am going to set my mind on things above and storm the gates of hell with this Kingdom that is in me.

January 29, 2010

January 12, 2010. Another regular day was coming to an end. At times I prefer to ride home from work by tap-tap. The ride is longer, it’s bumpier, and it is much less comfortable, but by traveling alone I don’t feel awkward about sinking away into my own world, as I often need to do in order to collect my thoughts and spend a moment with God.

Lately I’ve found it much easier to lose myself when I flip the switch on my new noise canceling headphones, a gift from my lovely fiancée. I enter another world, where I can think, where I can reflect, where I can pray. Where I can come to grips with the fact that I really am working to end child slavery and i am dreaming to rebuild a nation. Through these moments of prayer I find the audacity to believe that our efforts at the Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation can actually break chains of slavery. In these moments of peace I find the environment to nourish the impossible dreams for my nation, my family, my church, “my children” and myself. In these moments of consecration I am given the dreams of God for a nation.

That’s where I was at 4:53, when everything came crashing down. With my eyes closed and my mind centered, I thought that the shaking was a sign of the potholes that I am used to passing through. Then I opened my eyes to take a peak and realized that the car was stopped. Unusual. I looked outside and saw a large puddle… it was “wobbling.” Even more unusual. As I continued to look down the street and noticed people picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, I realized what had just happened. I had just unknowingly “experienced” an earthquake.

At first I was pretty excited. I had never seen anything like it before, and being in a vehicle and in a place of lesser trauma I didn’t see any immediate cause for concern. I texted my fiancée to tell her not to worry. “I was just in a “minor” earthquake, but everything is fine.” The message never arrived because communication was instantly shut down due to fallen towers. I tried to call my Dad and my brother, still nothing. I knew in my heart that everything was fine, so I continued home in peace.

As we continued to drive I began to see the damage and the devastation. Buildings reduced down to rubble, people in tears, wailing in a way that I have only ever heard Haitians wail. Still, I watched from the tap-tap almost as if it were a movie with my heart still in its usual state of peace wondering, “is it really that bad?” For a portion of the way home I had to walk. I walked steadily, greeting people that I knew along the way, asking them how everything was, still taking everything in. Like the road I was on at the moment of impact, my home community was better off than most, so I still wondered if it could have really been that bad.

When I arrived at home, my internet was still connected. I took advantage of my internet phone at that moment to console everyone that I knew and let them know that everything was okay. They were worried about what they were reading on the news, which, in their words, was “unreal.” I told them to never get their news from TV if they can get a source on the ground. The news is always unreal and sensational, and I saw with my own eyes that everything was fine.

Then I went to read it for myself… and it was unreal. Truly unbelievable. I know very little about the Richter Scale, but I know that 7.0 is a high number. I saw that it was high enough to take down every government building in the capital (which I was seeing online—all but the national archives). It was high enough to kill the then-estimated 70,000 people, an estimate which has grown to surpass 200,000. What I saw then and what I am witnessing today is beyond catastrophic.

Many said that day that Haiti had been destroyed, finished, “fini.” They saw a fatal blow to a nation that had never really had a chance to flourish throughout its 206 years of existence. With half of the population living in the capital and more than half of all commerce and official business taking place in Port-au-Prince, I can understand where they are coming from. But my mind is not wired to think that way. In the midst of hopelessness and doubt I still held another perspective. As I survey the disaster and devastation, as I and the foundations that I am working with respond to cries of desperation, as behold the ever-growing chaos, I see that Haiti has really just begun. Haiti is being born all over again. The cries of agony are just the birthing pains that will bring forth a beautiful hope beyond anything we could ever imagine (but I bet my imagination comes close…).

How can I see hope when thousands of homes were destroyed? Where is the hope for hundreds of thousands of children who now have no school to attend? What about the hundreds of businesses that are closed, crushed along with their managers who were inside doing their official end-of-day accounting at the time of the disaster? Where is the hope in all of this?

The hope is in a new beginning. When everything comes crashing down, make the best of it and build a new foundation. Haiti greatly needed one.

I would say that the source of at least 85% of the problems in Haiti reside in its capital. Nearly 50% of the country’s population lived in Port-au-prince or in its vicinity. I hear that by standards of the capital’s original design (which is not clearly evident, by the way), the city is/was overpopulated by at least 3 million. (Haiti has a population of only 9 million).

Overcrowding leads to poor sanitation, poor infrastructure, higher crime rates, poor job markets, and just about every other malady that Haiti suffers from. The problem is that almost every bit of opportunity that the country has to offer (primary education, business, jobs, university studies, networking, etc) resided in Port-au-Prince, attracting more and more people creating and complicating more and more problems (including “restavèk”).

This crowding also leads to the underdevelopment of the outer provinces which again encourages them to come to the city to get a piece of their hope. It was an endless cycle that no one knew how to stop… until now. On January 13, 2010, the decentralization process had already begun on its own. Why? Because today, Port-au-Prince is no better than any other town or city in the nation. Let’s keep it that way.

What do I mean? I mean that we should rebuildHaiti, NOT Port-au-Prince. Yes, we should make Port-au-Prince into a great city, but it should be a great city within an even greater nation. Haiti is a beautiful country. Anyone who has ever been outside of Haiti’s capital knows that Port-au-Prince is “its own republic.” It is not representative of the rest of the country. Most of the pictures of “Haiti” that you’ve seen on the internet all come from one place: Cité Soleil, the nation’s worst slum which happens to be built on prime beach-front property (which I pray will one day be transformed into a beautiful all-inclusive resort).

But now we are in a position to change this. In a matter of minutes Port-au-Prince was lowered down to the level of the minor cities of country, and with that, in a matter of days, thousands left and went to their homes in the countryside. Will they return? Well, they will if we make the mistake of rebuilding Port-au-Prince.

Where is the hope for destroyed commerce? I heard several people say out loud “I’m going back to my hometown where I can work the ground for food. Even if I don’t make money, at least I can still eat.” All over the world Haitians seem to be happy picking fruit for a living. We do this everywhere but in Haiti. We serve rather as an American/Dominican Franchise, buying from the U.S. and the Dominican Republic and selling back to our countrymen. Everyone is selling and no one is buying. As a result, Haiti cannot feed itself nor can Haitians afford to buy food. We have a net import of our staple foods, rice and beans. A decade from now, this will no longer be the case, if we follow a clear vision and plan.

Where is the hope for the destroyed educational system? As we give assistance to rebuild schools that were destroyed, why not give mostly to those who agree to relocate their schools to their hometowns in the provinces? Then families will no longer have to send their children to the cities to go to school, where they can fall into the restavek trap.

Where is the hope for the destroyed homes and broken families? My sympathy goes out to everyone… But take a survey. Ask how many people would still want to live in Port-au-Prince if their hometowns had jobs and education. You will find that everyone would be ready to go “home” in a heartbeat. Let’s find a way to send them home.

Where is the hope for the governing of this rising great nation when every government building has been destroyed in the capital? First we must admit that there was never really a government to begin with, only now there is no longer a stage to play “leader” or “Prince of the Palace.” The international community has given its remarkable response, but the people have yet to hear government officials rise up to their aid with a plan, yet even in their “absence” nothing has really changed. The people continue to govern themselves in the same way that they used to. Haiti has been a “functional anarchy” for decades, and it continues to be so, for now. I pray that the right leader will rise up with a plan, with a passion, with a good heart, and with great wisdom to bring true order to our great society.

The government may not have a plan, but we, with the help of God, are working on a brilliant one. Please pray for us, our colleagues and our partners. For many decades the international community and innumerable NGOs have been working hard to build a better Haiti. They built and built and for many decades, then whenever the rains came down, and the floods went up, the winds blew and now even the earth shook, just as Jesus said, the foolish man’s house fell flat. There is still something lacking in all of these efforts: common vision.

If you are bringing aid to rebuild, I commend you and I thank you… but please do not be a foolish builder. Don’t simply come with your ideas and plans. Look for and submit to wise leadership. God is sending a master builder to lead us in this process. He is working on a master plan that will serve as a great foundation for this next great nation.

This plan will be published in the days/weeks to come. Haiti will rise again, and you will help us build it.